Saturday, March 15, 2008

SXSWi List

Things discussed (at parties mainly, since I was badgeless) at SXSWi that I'd like to talk about some more:

1. Racism, sexism, homophobia and social media. Encouraging more discourse on these topics and effecting real change. (i.e. the backlash at Sarah Lacy during her interview with Mark Zuckerberg, some of it certainly sexist. Also the recent flare-up on Twitter when Dave Winer asked if all Twitter users were white. Plenty of other small and big discussions flying around this week. It seems to be in the air.)

2. Transparency, back-channels, openness, cross-pollination, live streaming. More, please. (Had a great chat about this with Roo Reynolds this morning at breakfast, although both of us a little too tired to be completely coherent.)

3. New media/old media intersection. Bringing arts, music, journalism, performance art into the technology-driven world of social media. (Watching the art made by Honoria Starbuck and others during panel discussions; thinking about the overlap of interactive/film/music, encouraging more interplay between those three.)

4. What can we all do to reach out to the community at large, both locally and globally? How can social media better address issues of poverty, hunger, women's rights, infrastructure-building, education? Other than bringing revenue to town, what can people on the ground at SXSWi do to reach out to the very real and immediate population of homeless and hungry in downtown Austin? (A major topic during our ride in the tech cab with Irina Slutsky.)